Historically, CloudStack's debian/deb packages/repositories have never been supported by the initial authors. For example, initial ACS version and all CCP releases never shipped deb packages, nor in our (old and recent) documentation we promote installation/running CloudStack on Debian/Ubuntu. Afaik, it was Wido who introduced it because he wanted to run CloudStack on Ubuntu/Debian-based distro. Also, the packages are something that the project never shipped or endorsed or supported, so it's up to the maintainers of various repositories how they are building and hosting CloudStack packages. Even if we remove the packaging support in our branch/repository, anyone can build CloudStack for any distro, several people/projects have packaging related buildsystem/code separated from the project codebase. Most tutorials that I found are based around Ubuntu 14.04 or CentOS, given that 12.04 is 4+ years old, we might not even have anyone using CloudStack on it.
That said -- I think 4.9 should at least not drop the support yet, just to let any Ubuntu 12.04 user who may be using it in the wild. If we look at the PR, the way we're dropping the support is by simply bumping up few package dependency versions. The issue of supporting or dropping support for Ubuntu 12.04 lies in those version changes only. The more important thing right now is to support at least Ubuntu 16.04 hosts as KVM guests and usage-server hosts, which is much needed in both 4.9 and master branch for the upcoming 4.9.1.0 and 4.10.0.0 releases. Wido -- would it be acceptable to avoid bumping up the min. package dependency version, i.e we don't change the pkg dependencies for cloudstack-agent and keep the version number as it is for lsb-base, qemu-kvm, libvirt-bin for 4.9 branch. While on 4.10, we can discuss if we want to drop the support now or plan this later. Regards. ________________________________ From: Wido den Hollander <w...@widodh.nl> Sent: 23 August 2016 11:38:43 To: dev@cloudstack.apache.org; John Burwell; us...@cloudstack.apache.org Subject: Re: Eliminating Support for Ubuntu 12.04 > Op 23 augustus 2016 om 1:02 schreef John Burwell <john.burw...@shapeblue.com>: > > > All, > > PR 1647 [1] proposes dropping support for Ubuntu 12.04 from 4.9.2.0+. The > primary motivation for its removal is that the age of its libvirt and qemu > versions greatly complicate maintenance of the KVM integration. However, > Ubuntu 12.04 will be supported until April 2017 [2]. What would be the impact > to our user community of removing support for Ubuntu 12.04 before its EOL in > April 2017? If we don’t drop support for it in 4.x, would it be acceptable > to drop support for it in 5.0.0 which is currently scheduled for release at > the end of 2016 [3]? > The PR was supposed to go into 4.9 already, it just took way to long to get merged. So that's why it would now go into 4.9.2 > If we do chose to drop support for Ubuntu 12.04 in 4.x, I propose that we > remove it in 4.10.0.0 rather than 4.9.2.0. First, it is reasonable for users > to expect that upgrading between patch releases (i.e. 4.9.x.x -> 4.9.x+1.x) > would not require system changes. Dropping a distribution would violate such > an expectation. Second, 4.9 is an LTS branch. Therefore, maintaining 12.04 > support in 4.9 would provide LTS users with support for Ubuntu 12.04 until > May 2018 — well after its EOL. Does this approach seem reasonable if we > elect drop Ubuntu 12.04 in 4.x? Again, this PR had to be merged earlier, not later. It's just very difficult packaging wise to keep supporting 12.04 and 16.04 at the same time. The Qemu and libvirt versions in 12.04 are truly ancient. I doubt anybody is running stock 12.04 with CloudStack 4.8 right now for example. The Ubuntu 12.04 debate has been popping up multiple times in the last year. This PR has been open way to long, that's imho the main problem here. I'm in favor of dropping 12.04, should have been done in 4.9 already and not wait any longer. Wido > > Thanks, > -John > > [1]: https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/pull/1647 > [2]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases > [3]: > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/CLOUDSTACK/%5BPROPOSAL%5D+2016-2017+Release+Cycle+and+Calendar<https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/CLOUDSTACK/[PROPOSAL]+2016-2017+Release+Cycle+and+Calendar> > > > > john.burw...@shapeblue.com > www.shapeblue.com<http://www.shapeblue.com> > 53 Chandos Place, Covent Garden, London VA WC2N 4HSUK > @shapeblue > > > rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com www.shapeblue.com 53 Chandos Place, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4HSUK @shapeblue
